Veni, Vidi, Scripsi

Daily Archives: December 2, 2018

One of my concerns for the whole LOTRO Legendary server plan was the lack of differentiation between it and the standard live servers. The whole, “Why should I bother?” question is completely legitimate if you can’t come up with much.

There was legitimate doubt here

This was not helped by SSG’s really bad sharing of information about the server. Items that could have been selling points before hand, like the slower leveling pace or restored quests or the actual launch date more than two days ahead of time, ended up being things we had to discover on our own. It was a tragic mis-use of a FAQ, the FAQ itself seemingly formulated to discourage people.

Some things I had hoped would not show up, like daily hobbit presents, were there. But I figured that might be the end of it, that we could all settle in and focus on the task at hand, defeating Sauron and the forces of Mordor before all of Middle-earth sank into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted magic.

And then I logged in to find that the Fall Festival was upon us, complete with an invite to come to The Shire to take part.

Hey, Evendim quests

Well, I figured I would at least use the magic travel map to get it out of my chronically full bag and maybe give somebody an ear full about this all being a distraction we could do without. Also, I didn’t think extra experience from events would be desirable. So I clicked it and it sent me off to the party tree.

Don’t you people know there is a war on?

I was standing around trying to look indignant when a local hobbit suggested that I couldn’t drink six beers in just a minute. My dwarven pride was stung by the implication, so I showed him, only to find that wasn’t all there was to the challenged. Soon I was riding about the shire, from inn to inn, to drink beer along with a motley crew of fellow travelers.

No Legolas and Gimili jokes, they aren’t together in my timeline yet

After a couple of runs I was re-introduced to the LOTRO drunken effects, which blurs and distorts the world around you.

Unlike real life, speech is not distorted

The drunk effects only got worse as I made it further along in the trial.

So very drunk now

That second level of drunkeness doesn’t look as bad at a glance, but there is literally two images of everything and they are moving back and forth and in and out all the time. It is a very good simulation of distortion… though my memories of college and being that drunk are not so sepia toned.

The last stretch was hard… it turns out the wavy, transparent beer in your vision is the real one, not the more solid looking one… but I made it through to the end and was granted another title.

I have more aliases than Fletch

Then I had to sober up to get back to the business at hand. I suppose a short vacation from critical tasks was okay. But when I logged in the next day I was greeted with this at the top of my quest tracker.

Hobnanigans?

Hobnanigans? Chicken polo? Now? Don’t these people know there is a war on?